Call to Action! Don't Do This!
I wanted to write this post because I spent a fair amount of time last night working on figuring out how I could add Call to Action strategies to my website targeting potential WA members. My niche website has nothing to do with building an online business or earning passive income from affiliate marketing. In spite of this I am hell bent on finding a crafty way to connect with readers in this direction. What I ended up deciding to do was to pose my call to action phrases in the form of questions. For example: Do You Have a Passion......Find out more? Do You Want to... Go Here??? and so forth. I was pretty proud of myself last night thinking I had come up with a great way to connect with folks who are surely out there looking for this sort of thing to take the call to action.
After sleeping on it and looking over my questions today, I began to feel like it isn't going to work.
As a coincidence (or maybe not), I went to visit my mother this evening and there was a book there called Tales From Kentucky Lawyers by William Lynwood Montell. While perusing through the book, I ran across one story called "Jury Trial Over Ear That was Bitten Off" The lawyer telling the story was named Stan Billingsly, date- March 20, 2001.
The story was in sync with a common code lawyers are taught in law school which is: Don't ever ask a question you don't know the answer to". Also, a well known Harper Lee-(To Kill A Mockingbird) quote as follows:
"Never, never, never, on cross-examination ask a witness a question you don't already know the answer to, was a tenet, I absorbed with my baby-food."
The prime example of this in the story told in the book "Tales from Kentucky Lawyers" was about a defendant in a case involving a maiming. He was charged with biting the victim's ear off in a barroom fight (No, it wasn't Mike Tyson) ;-) The defense attorney asked the witness "Did you actually see him bite off the victim's ear?" The prosecution witness replied that he had not actually seen the defendant bite the ear off.
The defense attorney should have shut up at that point! But, instead he was so full of himself based on the answer from the first question, he turned to the jury and loudly shouted with raised arms, "Well, if you didn't see him bite off the ear, just what did you see?"
To which the prosecution's witness replied "I saw him spit it out".
Oops! Obviously, in this true case example, the defense lawyer was expecting the prosecuting witness to have no comeback and he was wrong, and lost the case.
My simple point for relaying this story: If your readers are not responding to your call to action then find out the answer to the questions (WHY?) or don't bother asking!
The story might be a bit of an extreme example but it resonated with me and reminded me again that I should be better focused on strategies that are both meaningful and impactful to my reader. No taking my readers for granted, assuming I know what the answers to my own questions will be without doing my research.
I was also reminded after going back through some of the courses here today along with reading some new stuff I hadn't read before from Kyle and a few others that these answers are all here for us. Don't forget this like I was doing! Pay attention, review the course work more than once if you have to.
Get the answers down first then you can confidently ask for calls to action.
Thanks for bearing with me and my two cents contribution.
Recent Comments
47
Makes sense. Thank you for pointing that out. I guess reverse psychology can be used to grab someones attention, why not. Makes perfect sense.
Xav
A well made point, Cindy! I truly enjoyed reading your post. You are a very good writer, and kept my interest all the way through. The "hook" in mentioning the ear-biting case was great! And the humor of the second answer! Lol i could almost see that lawyer's face after that response. Kudos!
Thank you Frank! I wish I could claim the story, I thought it was funny too and worth passing along! Glad you liked it!
Hi Cindy,
Well I have to admit I laughed out loud at the spitting out of the ear. We don't always have funny blogs, but this was a good one.
I checked out your reasoning which is good.
Thanks Cindy for this inspiring post.
Jae
Glad it made you laugh..nothing like incorporating a bit of humor to try and make a point. Thanks for reading and responding Jae.
I don't usually read similar posts past the first couple of sentences, but yours is both amusing and informative at the same time. It leaves one to ponder about using Call to Actions that demand a reaction. Thank you for taking your time to write such a great post, Cindy :)
I had the Title different but I couldn't post it because I assume where I had the title of the story in the book in there it was telling me it was duplicate content..so I had to change it.
I appreciate you taking the time to read through it James.
Of course, that would be using other people's writing.
It's a great story, with an even greater message :)
Nice Cindy! Great food for thought. Btw, I got this book called
"Persuade" by Scott Hogel. Right up your alley. What you're talking about.
Somewhat a different angle but similar to me.
He called it "Connection." If we cannot connect with our customers, intent, motivations, etc. We cannot lead them to buy.
Thank you Cindy I like your blog.
Frank
Hey Cindy I assume you got your drawing! No?
=)
Thank you Frank! I got brave tonight and thought I'd post something I was thinking about. I will have to check the book you suggest out for sure!
And yes! I got the drawings! I thought I had told you. Sorry, if I didn't...Love them! Thanks so much!
Cindy,
You might've been busy.
Hey Cindy, not sure if I wanna show you this but what the heck, here it is my website in progress. Not even 10% done nothing to be proud of yet. It's just out there. My focus is design and not content.
here it is as said I'm not proud but anyways take a look if you don't mind.
wanttobeapartycartoonartist.com
Cindy no need to spend too much time at figuring what i can do. I know I must do. Just your opinion. And if you have suggestions I will appreciate anything!
Mahalo my friend!
Frank =)
I will do ! You've changed the site name ;-) I like it!
I will give you my opinion tomorrow after I have time to have a good look. I'm sure you are on top of what you must do..but I will gladly check it out!
Thank you Cindy, do it when you have the time. No need to go out of your way.
Mahalo my dear friend!
Frank
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Thanks for sharing that story as it really is a good teaching tool. We need to be reminded that we don’t have all the answers and it helps us to learn from looking up the answers.
That's a good way of describing the take from the story Lisa. Thank you for reading and responding!